Goal Attainment for the Creative Person

by Batya D. Wininger. MSW, MA, KAP, Rev.
UPositive Life Coaching
(specializing in the creative process)

Have you ever wondered why all the effort you put into goal-setting and to-do lists work for a short time and then fizzles? Most of us come across goals lists we’ve created from the previous year, or five years ago, or ten…and the same goals show up that we have now. We haven’t accomplished what we set out to do, but have become side-tracked, pre-occupied, or busy. We use the excuse of “well, goals lists are so logical and I’m so creative. My right brain doesn’t want to do what my left brain tells it to.”

Clients in both my psychotherapy and life-coaching practices often verbalize similar frustrations and excuses. Too often they give up setting any more goals at all when they realize that setting goals in the past hadn’t led them to creative success.

The problem, though, isn’t in having goals to work toward. The problems (yes, plural) are that (1) goals are set only from the left brain, or, at best, from the right brain and then the left brain takes over completely; and (2) goal-setting is not the goal (sorry)--goal attainment is.

Let’s address issue #1 first. The brain’s two hemispheres (left=specific, linear, mathematical, logical, organized, detailed and right=general, creative, non-linear, whole-pictured, emotional) are connected by the corpus callosum, which serves as a bridge or translator between the two sides. To lead a balanced life, the corpus callosum needs to be busy, passing the different kinds of information from one side to the other.

Think about a see-saw, with some kind of fulcrum in the middle. Balance is not about a flat see-saw board. Remember back to being a child. The excitement of reaching that place of equal balance lasted…what? three seconds? And then you were totally bored. The excitement of the see-saw is in each side going up, then down, then up, then down...and remember when you had that moment of unequal balance? That was always the surprise, and the most fun! And then you traded places, the other side up where you were, you down where they were, and back again.

Now, to address #2 above: the difference between goal setting and goal attainment. Goal setting is the thinking part of the process. It’s the talking-the-talk part, making declarations and statements of intent. It’s imagining and deciding the direction and shape of your life and determining the steps you need to take to get there. It’s the map. Goal attainment is taking the steps. It’s acting. It’s walking the walk. It’s accomplishing those bits and pieces on your to-do list. It’s getting off your butt and past the buts (“but I can’t”; “but I don’t have time”; “but I don’t know how”). Goal attainment is the process of getting from here to there. It’s finding the ‘Yes!” It’s the adventure of your life.

Let’s look at the process of songwriting in the image of the see-saw: The right brain has the Aha! of a song idea or hook. You get the feel, the emotion that you want to convey to listeners, again right-brain. There’s a rhythm to the words, certainly to the melody: yup, right brain. After a bit, you have a song…or do you? There’s a saying in Nashville: “A great song isn’t written, it’s rewritten.” And the re-writing is left-brain. The “editor” is left-brain. Matching the first line of the first verse to the first line of the second verse, changing a word because of syllable count or emphasis, searching for a better rhyme...these are left-brain activities. You polish and then you play the song again. You listen to it as a whole: does it convey emotion, have meaning, does the music move you? Again, we’ve returned to the right brain.

Goal attainment is a similar process. You start with a visualization (right brain) of where you want to be in ten years, or five years, or three years, or next year, or next month. You pull your goals (left brain) from the right-brain’s visualization. Your left brain works down from general goals to steps you can take to reach them (often requiring brainstorming---right-brain storming) from this list. Then you organize the goals and schedule the goals (left brain). And if they’re creative goals, the right brain does them (takes action).

The reason the right brain takes the action in this scenario (rather than the goal-setting process you’re used to) and actually accomplishes a creative goal is because it has participated in the process. Your right brain can return to your vision, to your brain-storming, to the excitement of the right brain in ‘seeing’ the goal accomplished, and it is inspired and motivated to take the creative actions needed to attain this picture.

If you’re familiar with “The Secret,” you’re familiar with the reticular activating system within your brain. This is the ‘setup’: what you focus on is what shows up in your life. (It’s really a bit more complicated than that, but for the sake of brevity and this article, we can boil it down to: What you ‘see’ is what you get.) The visualization of the attainment of your goals is what the right brain creates.

Goal-setting from both sides of the brain does take more time. It requires more effort. And it is more likely to succeed for creative people than the sit-down-and-write-lists-of-your-goals that usually include only the left brain and its logic. But isn’t attaining the visualization you have of what your creative life can be worth the extra effort?

Of course it is!

Through UPositive Life Coaching, Batya D. Wininger, MSW, MA, KAP, Rev., works with individuals and small groups in determining and attaining their creative goals. You can contact Batya directly at 615-299-6525 or UPositive55@aol.com.

At the time of print, Batya Wininger was in the middle of teaching a three-week class at the Songwriters Guild of America in Nashville called “Goal Setting & Achievement for the Creative Person.” Watch for photos from that class and more points on “goal attainment” in the next SGA newsletter.